Human damage to seagrass meadows leads to the release of ancient carbon stores, a study has found.

Australian researchers studied sea grass meadows in Jervis Bay that had been disturbed by seismic testing in the 1960s.

"We found that in the area that had been disturbed, there had been a 72 per cent decline in the amount of organic carbon," marine ecologist Dr Peter Macreadie for Deakin University and the University of Technology, Sydney said.

The findings suggest protecting and restoring seagrass meadows could be an important strategy in mitigating climate change, say the authors in today's issue of the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.